Dien Bien airport to be temporarily closed for upgrade and expansion
PSNews - Ministry of Transport of Vietnam has issued a decision to temporarily shut Dien Bien Airport in the namesake northern upland province for eight months for an upgrade and expansion, starting from mid-April.
Dien Bien Airport in the mountainous province of Dien Bien will cease operations in mid-April for upgrade. According to the Transport Minister, the work on the project is expected to last eight months, from April 15 to December 17.
This is part of an airport expansion project on which the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) began work last January at a total cost of over VND1.4 trillion funded by ACV. Dien Bien will tap its budget to cover the site clearance cost of nearly VND1.56 trillion.
The current Dien Bien Airport was restored from Muong Thanh Airport, which was constructed by the French. The airport has a runway which is 1,830 meters in length and 30 meters in width, three aprons, and a passenger terminal that was built in 2004 and has an annual capacity of 300,000 passengers.
Due to the short runway and simple landing systems, Dien Bien Airport only serves ATR 72 turboprops and Embraer 190 jets, which can transport a maximum 114 passengers.
After the upgrade, the airport will be able to serve up to 500,000 passengers annually and handle Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft and the like when its runway is lengthened to 2,400 meters.
The Dien Bien People’s Committee had earlier sent a dispatch to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam reaching a consensus on temporarily closing Dien Bien Airport from April 1, but work on some components was delayed, scrapping the plan.
